Posts Tagged With: Coromandel Peninsula

At the hot water beach surrounded by a ton of strangers. Even the people I was with were all new to me but we were yelling and bossing each other around like old friends. “Build a wall”, “Dig Here”, “It’s so hot” – okay, so that’s only what I’m willing to repeat but it gives you a taste. It was a grand old-time trying to find a spot on the beach to make our own natural hot tub. We messed around in the sand with our two shovels and an army of people in attempt to get a decent and warm pool to call our own. Ours was a little more like a hot bath shared amongst 20ish people but it was well worth the effort as it was one of those moments that would bond us for the remainder of the trip.

You see, at the beginning of the day – I didn’t know anyone (okay, that’s a bit of a lie as I knew 4 of the people on my bus as they were all on my previous Stray trip…minor details). That morning, we were on a bus and keeping quiet and to ourselves (again, possibly not me but I’ll never tell). Anyway, by the time we were departing the Hot Water Beach – we were making plans for New Years Eve, singing along to the radio, and chilling in a bus of non-stop chatter and laughter. In my books – day 1 was a success.

Tried and feeling slightly too old for the hostel scene – we decided that we’d do it up kiwi style and got ourselves a bach. Woke up Saturday morning in a pretty amazing place across the street from Buffalo Beach in Whitianga that worked out to cost the same as a hostel. Take that hostel!!! Finally we were living the luxurious life – or just plain old big pimpin (blame the boys at work for the music that was blasting all day). The only problem was that I was so hungry from skipping dinner the night before that I was ready to chew off an arm. Luckily I had the English Superstar by my side and she handed me a glass of milk and asked if I fancied a little BBQ for breakfast. Who wouldn’t want BBQ first thing in the morning and so we set off to Cafe Nina.

Seems like a fitting advert at this point

The visions of steaks and pulled pork sandwiches dancing in my head wasn’t exactly what was being served but it was still a decent breakfast in what I would call a cafe with character. With all my nodding and grunting between mouthfuls of tasty food (and possibly some questionable sausages) we had come to the decision to do a boat tour of Coromandel. Personally I wanted to go out on one that looked like a little dingy where the threat of falling into the open sea loomed but I got vetoed and we wound up on in a glass bottom boat that seemed a lot safer. Turns out that the Scottish Avenger, Canadian Diva, and English Superstar that I travelled with would end up paying dearly that night for vetoing my decision but that’s a story that I think is best left untold. Like the say – what happens in Coromandel, stays in Coromandel.

natural boat garage

Despite the fact that we weren’t out on a little dingy – being out on the water on a beautiful Saturday afternoon couldn’t have been any better. My favourite part of the entire ride is when we stopped outside of some of the caves and they let me climb onto the roof of the boat. I climbed just like I was spiderman and tried not to let the gentle swaying of the boat plummet me head first into the ocean. Just incase you’re wondering – nobody fell in. All in all, a wonderful Saturday afternoon basking in the sun which made all the worries from a hectic work week just fade away.

Woke up on Friday morning and thought – wow, I’m such an idiot! I was leaving for Coromandel right after work but still hadn’t managed to finish packing and could barely fake functioning like a normal human being with just 3 hours of sleep. So I went into my turbo rockstar mode – threw a bunch of randomness into my pack as I got ready for work and even managed to fly out the door to make my morning triage without breaking a sweat. Sadly, all my brilliance fell to pieces when I realized that anything remotely healthy for breakfast was already consumed by my coworkers and I was left with no choice but to fill up on all the sugar sweetness that was lying about. I crashed and burned hard.

By the time the end of the day hit – I was visibly in rough shape. But the show must go on and I was a trooper and did everything in my power to make sure that I made it to the car in one piece and was good to go. It was a different story once I showed up at the car. Let’s just say I was dead weight that may or may not have been curled up in fetal position in the back seat. By the time we stopped for food – nausea had set in from lack of sleep (and possible from being hung over…I’ll never tell!!!) but I figured it was best to skip dinner and relax in the back seat for the rest of the drive.

Skipping dinner was the smartest move I could make as the road took on twists and turns after our stop. It was like we were driving

beautiful moments that I slept through...

on a rollercoaster in the middle of the night and one wrong move was going to have us plummeting to our death down some steep cliff. It was at this point that I just closed my eyes and tried to figure out a puke plan that wasn’t going to involve causing a car accident on a twisty turny road.

Thankfully, there was no incidents in the car that involved vomit. Once I felt safe again, I opened my eyes and noticed that we were heading straight into the open sea. There were no barricades or warning signs. The road just ended and the sea was on the other side. Fortunately for everyone in the car – the superstar at the wheel was alert and reacted with lightening speed and avoided a major disaster. It was at this point we had to stop the car and just laugh. Despite the white knuckle driving and getting slightly lost and almost driving in the ocean – we made it to our rental bach in one piece and after many stiff drinks it was time for bed.